


Yamaguchi-Anti-Cupid

by emothy



Category: Gokusen (TV), Japanese Drama
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-13
Updated: 2009-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-04 00:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emothy/pseuds/emothy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noda is working his way towards a date with Fujiyama-sensei, Yankumi is working at being the ultimate anti-Cupid, and Shin is just wishing he wasn't caught up in the whole mess (as usual).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yamaguchi-Anti-Cupid

"You seem a bit out of your depth," Shin says-

-watching Yankumi watching Fujiyama-sensei and Noda just two tables away. She is biting her lip so hard she might just draw blood, and shuffling in her seat just like Kuma does when a teacher tries asking him for a correct answer during class.

_So am I_, he thinks to himself, slouching back in his seat and picking at his jumper as though concerned because there's a bobble on it that needs to come off. He isn't wondering whether his clothes are date-appropriate. Not at all.

Yankumi is squinting behind her glasses. Shin watches her fingers twitching on the tabletop. He thinks idly about giving her some kind of support, reassurance, and his hand creeps silently forward past the drinks-

"Did she just brush her leg against his?!" Yankumi squeaks, aghast. Her hands go to her mouth and as she leans forward she starts chewing on her thumbnail. Shin flops back in his seat and through a veil of bitterness prays that _Noda_ at least gets some; one of them should after all this trouble.

-

"So if I get an eighty on the final test, you'll go on a date with me?" Noda asks hopefully. His puppy dog eyes are enough to turn Uchi away in disgust, sticking his fingers halfway down his throat and mocking being sick over by the bushes, but they seem to work on Fujiyama-sensei, because she smiles brightly at him and nods an agreement.

"Don't you think that's kind of wrong?!" Shin hears Yankumi mutter pretty loudly as the three teachers walk away.

He can pretend he never heard that. His situation is completely different.

-

Noda has a secret weapon.

"Tapes!" He says, brandishing them proudly. "_And_ books!"

Actually, he has three.

"-And a great teacher," he smirks, and Shin lets himself for a very stupid, very trusting moment, believe Noda is gushing about Fujiyama-sensei again. Until he feels an arm around his shoulders.

"Right, Shin?" Noda grins.

"Why do I have to be involved in this?" Shin protests loudly, until he realises he is actually the one best suited to help Noda in this instance, whether anyone but him knows it or not, and it's entirely all his own fault.

-

"It may be time to start getting concerned..." Kawashima-sensei murmurs over Fujiyama's shoulder. Kumiko catches the words, turns her head quickly. She can't see what they are looking at.

"What's going on?" She demands as if she has a right to know. She practically burns a hole into Fujiyama-sensei's back, and yet Fujiyama-sensei turns but still doesn't bother to speak up and explain.

"Noda Takeshi got a total score of sixty-eight on his latest test, and there's still over a month until the final one," Kawashima says with a ghost of a smile on her face. "Plenty of time to get twelve extra points, no?"

"You're not going to keep that promise are you?!" Kumiko can't decide if she's more horrified, or curious.

Horrified, definitely. Yes.

Fujiyama shrugs. "I don't know, it could be fun?" she says. A slight little grin graces her mouth. "Younger men can be great, they look up to you and expect you to show them everything, and try their best to learn what you have to teach them..."

Kumiko stops listening before her brain can even begin to process the words.

"La, la, la, la, I can't hear you!" She chants. But when she stops, there is utter silence, and when she looks around, both Kawashima and Fujiyama are long gone from the staff room.

-

She's left with no option but to go to her class. And the more she thinks about it, the more she's starting to wonder just how Noda did it-

"Now what are you doing?" She bellows into the classroom. Everyone is crowded around four of their classmates, one of them with his back turned whilst the others seem to be landing more than a few unfair hits.

"This is ridiculous!" Yankumi yells. "You stop it right now!" She glances around the room for her common sense. "Sawada!" He's in his seat, relaxed enough to fall asleep, as usual. "What is the meaning of this? How can you just sit there and watch?"

"Yankumi," he begins almost awkwardly, as if the nickname doesn't quite work in his mouth, "it's a game. Well, it's more like training."

"Training?" She asks, partly disbelieving but mostly curious. Sawada smirks.

"My cousin told me about it," Matsudaira says. "It's about learning to, uh, anticipate the blows before they can hit you. They train in it for sports and everything."

"Like boxing maybe?" Yankumi asks, tilting her head and pursing her lips in wonderment. "Well, maybe you should show me exactly what it is you're doing..."

Ten minutes later, the desks are in a circle around the edge of the room and Yankumi is beating her hand on the classroom floor in a constant rhythm.

"Oh come on, show some guts, how do you expect to beat him like that?!"

Maths class that afternoon goes completely out the window.

-

Yankumi almost goes home without her books and papers, hardly surprising when she realises she has no work from 3-D for the day to mark. She blushes while no-one can see her and hurries back to the classroom.

Noda and Sawada are inside, heads lowered over a book.

"What's going on?" Yankumi asks, and Noda jumps a mile. Eyes wide, arms fumbling to cover his desk, he tries to stand up and almost trips. Sawada just watches.

"I told you we should've done this at your place!" Noda hisses. Sawada shrugs.

"It's fine," he says, "why not tell her?"

"So?" Yankumi asks, hands on hips. And then she catches sight of some of the words on the page and she gets it. "Oh!"

And then-

"Hey! Sawada, you're helping him?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Sawada replies, "he's my friend."

"But, but-" Yankumi splutters, and Noda looks like he's about to fall through the floor. Yankumi tries to compose herself by glaring at Noda until he gets the hint.

"I'll talk to her," Sawada says quietly, and Noda nods and runs away.

"You condone this?!" She asks. Sawada almost ignores the horrifying subject of the question just for the fact that she is speaking to him like his opinion really matters. That his thoughts on this kind of subject are of a maturity level equal to hers. Because while sometimes she can be a bit like a kid, others she can be so inadvertently insightful it makes his chest hurt.

"It's something Noda really wants," Sawada says. He lets that thought hang for a minute. "And he's my friend, so I support that. Besides," he adds with a faint smile, "we're basically all adults now."

He ends there and lets the implications of his words settle in Yankumi's brain firmly.

Then he gathers up his things and makes a speedy exit before she can open her mouth and destroy the self-preserving assumption he's made that she did understand exactly what he was getting at.

-

"How can I stop this?" Kumiko asks. Whenever she comes to him with a problem her eyes go wide and vague just as they did when she was a child, Ryuichiro notices. In some ways he is never going to think of her as an adult in her own right. Not now, like this, clenching her fist as though she is about to pummel and kick at the ground until she gets her way.

"Perhaps the best thing to do is to let this run its course," he says thoughtfully, when all he really wants to do is laugh. He knows Kumiko too well to think this advice will subdue her. And so he doesn't bother to elaborate on his words.

"But Noda is so young and impressionable!" Kumiko cries, getting to her feet. "And Fujiyama-sensei, well, I wouldn't say anything _very_ rude about a co-worker, but she is so very light-hearted and she may not realise what she is getting into! Noda is our student! _My precious student!_"

"Ojou almost sounds _jealous_, huh?" The voice comes from the background and is followed by four sniggers. It doesn't matter which one of them it was. Kumiko turns her death-glare on them all. Then clasps her hands to her chest.

"I would never have designs on dear, sweet Noda!" Ryuichiro believes in this moment that she has genuinely forgotten that time she'd landed Noda a good one for his mistakes regarding Fujiyama-sensei.

Not that Kumiko specifically told him she'd punched out her own student, but the way she had gotten to that part and actually stumbled over her own words and had to pause in the telling had let him know exactly what had happened, mostly because she hadn't wanted to admit to it.

"Maybe that is what was being _insinuated_, but I don't think it was truly meant, Kumiko," Ryuichiro says in a way that both accomplishes comforting her, and admonishing the men at the same time. They keep very quiet after that. "Perhaps on a wider scale, you envy that Fujiyama-sensei has the freedom of her ideals to go places you can't?"

_Perhaps you on some deep, deep, deep level have noticed the looks even I have seen Sawada sending your way?_ he thinks to himself.

-

"I could get hold of Noda's test somehow," Kumiko mutters to herself, "and change the answers. Not so many that I would truly sabotage his hard work - it's so nice to see him working so hard! ...even if it is working towards an impure goal. But just enough that he won't get eighty points on his test... Or even close enough to eighty that Fujiyama-sensei might agree to a date anyway, just because-"

"_Yankumi_," Sawada says right beside her ear. Kumiko jumps a mile and her head connects with Sawada's chin. He is busy rubbing his jaw while she doesn't even blink about it, just grabs his jacket collar, pushes him up against the chalkboard and demands to know how much he heard.

It's hard to shrug when Yankumi has you in her grip but Sawada manages it all the same. All the while his brain is separating itself from his body and enjoying the idea that he's definitely pressed up against the chalkboard because of Yankumi's horror at being caught out, while also thinking this isn't really the way he had planned any pressing-up-against-chalkboard events to go.

"No, really-" she begins, but Sawada pulls himself out of her grip before he can forget himself and say something he really doesn't mean to.

"This isn't about them," he spits out, sounding just like a sulky child. And realises he has just said something he really didn't mean to.

He's out the classroom door before he has to hear the reply to that ridiculousness, but on his way he manages to hear it anyway.

"It isn't?" Yankumi asks herself. And then, "Wait, _what_?"

-

"Noda Takeshi, eighty-five out of a hundred," Kawashima-sensei says, waving the paper about in front of her and almost dancing with the glee of the situation. To her, Kumiko thinks, it is a great laugh, because it has nothing to do with her at all. It isn't her date, and _it isn't her student_.

She grits her teeth and tries not to think about how lucky Kawashima-sensei is. After all, Kumiko knows that if she lets her guard down for one minute, the whole situation could bypass her.

"You're practically the last person to know," Fujiyama-sensei says. Is it Kumiko's imagination, or does she sound like she is rubbing it in? It was obviously done on purpose. "I told Noda-kun and his classmates hours ago."

There's a faint sort of connection building in Kumiko's mind, one that says, _oh now Sawada's actions make more sense_, but she doesn't really understand why that would be so, and therefore it doesn't surface as an actual coherent thought.

-

Maths class is a complete failure.

Not that this is unusual, it's just that this time it's because the entire lesson is full of the boys talking over Kumiko until she can barely hear herself _think_, let alone ask them to figure out the value of _y_ when _x_ is fourteen.

And of course, they are all talking to Noda about his date with Fujiyama-sensei. Of course they would be.

"You are so lucky!" Half of them moan and sigh.

"I don't think she'll really turn up," someone else murmurs.

"Oh yeah, Noda, what if she stands you up, dude?!"

The entire class erupts into a frenzy, Noda in the middle of it all having to stand on top of his desk and yell across the sea of heads that Fujiyama-sensei, will in fact, _not_ stand him up because this was a _promise_, and she would never break a promise. "And besides," he adds with a smirk, "all of you know about it, and she would never live it down if she didn't turn up."

"You mean _you_ wouldn't," Uchiyama grins. Fortunately for him, Noda isn't listening.

"I wouldn't actually blame her if she didn't turn up!" Oishi laughs. Some others agree with him, but the tone is light enough that Noda lets it fly. In truth he looks too happy to care what anyone thinks, because he has managed to get his date fair and square.

In a way, Kumiko doesn't want to ruin that for him. In a very small, tiny way that is easily squashed down inside of her where nobody will ever find it.

She looks to the back of the classroom, and it's in this moment she notices-

"Where's Sawada?"

-

"Shouldn't you be at school, young man?" Is the way Ryuichiro greets Sawada when he creeps through the door. He's smiling though, as though he understands, so Sawada tries not to look so very guilty. It's sort of a natural instinct for him to tread carefully - literally - when he goes to Yankumi's home, because of that. Because it's the place she eats and sleeps and talks about school, class 3-D (_him_) after a day at Shirokin. Because it is a household made up of Yakuza and the atmosphere is different. It deserves some sort of respect, and so do the people in it. Especially Kuroda Ryuichiro.

Sawada takes a seat opposite Ryuichiro and lowers his head a fraction. Not much, but it's more respect than he would give anyone else. Ryuichiro knows it, in his way he has of knowing things, and nods in response. He has quite a lot of respect for the person opposite him, too.

"Why is Yankumi like she is?" Sawada asks, and mentally curses himself for asking the most oblique question ever. He could be referring to any aspect of her character, and any aspect of her life as a reason for it - the 'family' she comes from for example, or that her parents died in a car crash when she was very young. It's overwhelming to all of a sudden realise how much he knows about Yankumi, both from her and from others. She knows only as much about him as he is willing to show, for all he thinks highly of her. "I mean, she is so... Considering you all are..."

Words aren't coming easily. Perhaps because there is no tactful way to say what he is trying to say. So Sawada reminds himself Yankumi isn't here for him to look an idiot in front of and just blurts the words out. He will be forgiven his awkward words because they aren't intended to insult.

"She has a lot of morals, doesn't she?" He says finally, mouth twisting when the words still come out the wrong way. Kuroda Ryuichiro-san is still smiling however, some kind of smile somewhere between the affectionate one he always gives Yankumi, and the trying-not-to-laugh one he also often sends Yankumi's way.

-

"Noda got an eighty-five on his final exam, and so he and Fujiyama-sensei are definitely going to go on their date now, and I think Yankumi is going to blow a gasket," Shin explains so quickly his words are almost tripping over one another. If he says it fast enough perhaps his feelings on the subject won't be so blatantly obvious.

Though he is pretty sure that if anyone could've noticed how he truly feels, Ryuichiro is top of the list. Perhaps the only one on it.

"And," he continues on, "she isn't even trying to hide how she feels about it, never mind that it isn't her business. Though I know Yankumi doesn't really know when to back away from something that isn't her business, but still, this time..."

"I see why it might be difficult for you," Ryuichiro nods sagely. He pours himself a drink, and remembers to offer Sawada a glass of water instead. His hand lingers over the alcohol beforehand, however, as though he is hesitant to dismiss it completely.

"Is it really so wrong, just because Noda is still Fujiyama-sensei's student at the moment?" Sawada wonders out loud. "I mean, we won't be students for much longer. We're... we're practically men now."

"That you are."

"Maybe he isn't truly in love with her or anything, but isn't it important to experience a lot of different things? I'm sure Yankumi is always telling us stuff like that."

Ryuichiro isn't sure he really wants to interrupt Sawada. He is usually quite quiet in Ryuichiro's presence, out of respect, but nonetheless it is nice to have him open up finally. He can tell Sawada doesn't do it often, and he knows from Kumiko that Sawada's relationship with his father is basically non-existent.

"Whether it is truly love or not, it isn't something Kumiko has the power to decide or judge," Ryuichiro says carefully, "none of us do but the people directly involved."

"...And maybe they don't even know themselves," Sawada replies.

-

"But do you think Yankumi can be convinced to leave it alone?" Sawada asks finally. He is getting a dry throat from all the talking, even with the glass of water on hand. And is experiencing faints pangs of something like regret from opening his mouth and saying so much. Not that Ryuichiro has given him any cause for concern in that respect. He hasn't even heard anyone else so much as cough nearby them since they sat down together.

Perhaps they all instinctively knew to give them some space? Sawada thinks of Tetsu and Minoru and highly doubts it. They lack the subtlety.

"I think Kumiko will always remember her first students," Ryuchiro says thoughtfully, "but I don't believe they will necessarily always have to be her students in her mind. Like all memories, they will be dulled in time, and other memories of her students can replace them." _As adults, as men_, are the words that go unsaid but Sawada hears them pretty clearly. It's this moment when his composure crumbles and his feet slip out from under him. He knows now that Ryuichiro _knows_.

He is fumbling for a way to take everything back, make it all come unsaid, when a door bangs open, and he's never been so grateful for the lack of grace in this household.

Until-

"Sawada," Kumiko says a little louder than intended, "what are you doing here?!"

"Just leaving," Sawada replies gathering himself up hastily.

-

"What was that about?" Kumiko demands. Ryuichiro is used to taking demands from nobody, except for Kumiko of course. He smiles while inwardly he races to think of something to say that won't betray Sawada's secret, but might help Kumiko catch on just a little.

"Sawada is worried about you," he says eventually in a near-perfect imitation of Kumiko sternly addressing one of her students in order to wake them up to reality. It doesn't have quite the same effect, of course. "He believes you are getting a little too involved in this issue with your student and that other teacher."

"Of course I am!" Kumiko cries out, "somebody has to do something!"

"But Kumiko, what exactly do you plan to do? What do you think is going to help?"

She is all at once very, very silent. Her head drops and her hands tuck themselves into her lap. She begins to chew on her lip a little as she thinks, looking like a scolded child. Nobody dared scold her in this household, even as a child. It's almost a comical image.

"Sawada only wants to help you," Ryuichiro says, and the way Kumiko's face brightens up he suddenly realises he's gotten his words completely wrong.

"That's it!" She exclaims. "There is a way Sawada can help me! This date is obviously going to go ahead whether I like it or not, but I can at least go along in secret and act as a kind of undercover chaperone! And if Sawada comes with me we'll just be another couple at a table!"

Kumiko bounces out of the room punching her fist into the air. Ryuichiro on the other hand feels like beating his head into the floor a few times.

He says a silent prayer to the sky asking Sawada's forgiveness and perfect understanding.

-

The morning is peaceful, for Shirokin. The school grounds are filled with the odd game of soccer or basketball, and his friends are hanging around by the gates watching the girls go by. Sawada wants to enjoy the simplicity of it, but somehow he just can't-

"Sawada!" Yankumi beams at him. Sawada's stomach sinks. His insides curl up and tie themselves in knots. It's a feeling that won't even allow you to be sick and release you from its terror.

That smile, that _glow_ radiating from Yankumi's face can't mean anything good. At least she isn't punching him, however.

"It was nothing, there was no reason!" He says sharply, his voice rising just a touch when she clamps her hand around his wrist and drags him away from his classmates. They're too busy waiting to see if the wind will pick up enough to lift some skirts to even notice he is gone.

"I need your help," Yankumi says, and Sawada can't help thinking, _yeah, in more ways than one_, but he keeps his mouth shut. He's done enough talking already. And she seems to have ignored what he said pretty thoroughly, which means this is about something else. He can go with that.

"So I have realised I can't do anything to stop the situation," Yankumi says, and Sawada breathes a sigh of relief, "BUT," she adds, "I am determined to keep an eye on things! And I want you to come with me."

"With you where?" Sawada asks.

"To wherever Noda and Fujiyama-sensei go on their date of course, stupid!" She grins. Sawada can't believe sometimes that she really thinks _he's_ the stupid one. "Operation Date Stake-Out, OH!"

"I don't think s-" Sawada says cuttingly, until he realises.

Wouldn't this sort of, almost, technically, also count as a... date?

-

"What are you wearing?" Sawada asks before he can stop himself. Yankumi twirls.

In a pastel pink mini-skirt and strappy top (and a wig of short, dark hair) she looks like a very strange, warped carbon-copy of Fujiyama-sensei. Sawada shudders a little inside.

This is almost as bad as that time she basically, unintentionally dressed herself to look like a prostitute. But even then she had more skin covered.

At least the glasses are still on. And behind them the same eyes. The usual dorky glasses, Sawada tells himself, and focuses only on them as much as possible.

-

"There they are!" Yankumi yells, pointing wildly, clearly forgetting the 'covert' part of the operation.

"Shut up-" Sawada hisses. And then Yankumi grips his wrist firmly and charges off with him in tow.

"Oh!" She then says after a moment, pauses, and slips her hand down to link with his. "It won't look right otherwise. Let's go!"

How can she be _so_ perceptive in some ways, and _so_ thick-headed in others. How can she waltz along _looking_ like that, looking so _obviously_ out of place and so fake that every single person they come across will gawk at her like she's crazy. How is it that she can be so self-assured so doesn't even notice or care about that. How can she be so full of good intentions, and pride and joy in her students, and at the same time remember a detail so simple as...

Sawada looks down again.

"Okay!" He squeaks out in response.

-

Sawada, over the course of the evening, (which at the restaurant has consisted of one hour and fifteen minutes thus far), has now suffered twelve small blows to the ego, seven accidental (and two very purposeful) kicks under the table from Yankumi's tendency to overreact, and nine condescending smirks from the waiter who is probably about the same age as Shin himself anyway. There was the incident with the fork and it almost colliding with his hand too, but since he escaped it with all fingers in tact Sawada has decided to forget about it.

Considering that their table has been more lively in its own way than Noda and Fujiyama-sensei's, it's rather surprising that it takes so long for one of them to notice Yankumi in her _completely inconspicuous_ outfit.

Fujiyama-sensei excuses herself to the restroom fo a moment, to "freshen up", whatever that means, and Yankumi falls off her chair in relief. Shin's head goes into his hands, not only trying to count to ten and pretend he is elsewhere, but knowing full well that if he does not hide his eyes and instead watches or even tries to help her up, he may just see too much around the mini-skirt area. And where exactly would that leave him, but still in the middle of a restaurant full of people, _including_ Yankumi?

"Shin?" He hears, but it isn't the pitiful cries of Yankumi sprawled out on the floor (_ohgod the thought of it_). "Yan_kumi_?!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about Noda!" Kumiko insists and she claws her way back into her seat. "I mean, stranger! I mean OOPS!"

Sawada wishes right that second that his hands had been glued permanently to his face, because that way his body wouldn't have been able to betray him and take them away them, forcing him to tilt his head up and look right into very accusing, angry teenage boy eyes.

-

"I should have known!" Noda bellows far too loudly. "I should've expected this all along! Why did I not see it coming? Jesus!"

Noda, not unlike Yankumi, also has a slight habit of overreacting, in Sawada's opinion. Now it's time for him to grimace and hold out silently while Noda lectures Yankumi about interfering and never trusting her so-called precious students who she insists she always _believes_ in.

It's a lecture Sawada gave her often enough himself in their early days, so he's pretty sure of how it's going to go.

"Some friend you turned out to be!" Noda says, and that's when Sawada realises the yelling is being directed at _him_. Not Yankumi. Him. "After all that help you gave me, the encouragement! Was it all lies? What was the point, Shin? Is it how you get your kicks? Setting up a situation in order to watch as you wreck it all?"

As if Shin could be bothered to go to all the trouble. Noda even _knows_ that, somewhere deep down. Sawada doesn't bother to pipe up a response though. He's actually pretty relieved Noda isn't blaming Yankumi, even though this is _completely all her fault_.

It goes to show how stupidly involved he is in this, he knows, that all he's feeling is relief on Yankumi's part. It may have become bad enough to refer to now as being quite smitten. If he were ever to refer to _it_ at all out loud to anyone ever. Which he isn't. And won't. Ever.

"Noda!" Yankumi wails across the restaurant. It's like a bad soap opera Sawada just has to watch because the TV remote control has been eaten by the dog and the off button on the screen doesn't work. People are starting to look up subtly, pretending they aren't interested, that they are really picking steadily at their strawberry desserts.

Noda ignores Yankumi completely, dismissing her much as he has the entire time. When he notices her jump up out the corner of his eye, Sawada has to physically restrain Yankumi from following Noda as he escorts Fujiyama-sensei (who is blissfully unaware of any stalkers in their midst) straight out of the doors.

"Enough!" He whispers harshly at her ear. "This has to stop now!"

He shocks her out of her struggling, and decides it may be safe enough to let her go. But Yankumi's eyes are lingering on the door and she's twitching like a dog about to be let loose on the scent.

Luckily Sawada has a flash of inspiration.

-

"Oh Sawada I am so sorry!" Yankumi cries, picking up her napkin to dab it at her eyes. The wig is discarded on the table and the state of her hair underneath makes her look like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards. Sawada can't decide whether he should make his expression look sadder or angrier.

"Well," he says softly, regretting how biting he has to be but knowing it is absolutely necessary, "you haven't thought of anyone but yourself this entire time. And you've dragged me into it, and now one of my best friends isn't talking to me anymore, because of some situation that you engineered."

"I am a terrible person!" Yankumi agrees, nodding and blowing her nose. It sounds a little like a fog-horn between the sniffles. "I must explain everything to Noda immediately so that he can stop blaming you, because really he's all to blame and this is all his own doing!"

Now, Sawada believes this is going a little too far. As always with Yankumi. He has to steer her back to safer waters.

"Look, it'll be okay. I can explain for myself. Noda is my friend, he should know me better than that. I'll make him see."

Yankumi shoots a dark and knowing look his way.

"Sawada, you aren't planning to rough him up, are you?" She says. "Because in this situation it really isn't the way, and I don't think-"

"Yankumi!" Sawada interrupts. "No! I will talk to him, like a _normal_ person!"

Sometimes she is _so_ Yakuza. At least he has managed to distract her long enough for Noda to get away. That's the real point here.

-

The next day at school, Noda is all smirks and grins, and no matter what the guys of class 3-D do, they can't get a word out of him. The one time Sawada makes eye contact with Noda, Noda sends him such a venomous glare that Sawada seals his mouth firmly shut.

"Oh, Sawada!" Yankumi cries, after the rest of the class have squeezed their way out of the doors. "I saw how Noda was behaving towards you; he didn't even stop to wait for Uchi and the others! I simply must smooth things out by telling him the truth!"

"It won't work," Sawada replies, "not unless you can also tell him you're sorry."

Yankumi opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. Sawada can tell just from Yankumi's proud stance and chin held high, that she still doesn't believe she's done anything wrong.

-

In the staffroom, Kumiko waits anxiously, twiddling her thumbs, tapping her feet on the floor, and pulling off her glasses to clean the lenses over and over. she can't get Noda's smug grin out of her head, the one that's say nothing and too much all at the same time. She can't help but remember Fujiyama-sensei's fancy lingerie magazines, and tries not to connect the images together.

Fujiyama-sensei walks in from her last class, and when Kumiko stares up at her like a frightened rabbit, Fujiyama-sensei smiles and licks her lips.

Kumiko almost faints.

She is on the floor with a bruised rear and Kawashima is offering her a cup of water when Fujiyama-sensei leans over them both.

"Nothing happened!" Fujiyama laughs in disbelief, "I was only joking with you; I didn't think you'd actually believe me! He's just a kid, after all."

"Oh thank God!" Kumiko gasps out. "You do have morals after all!"

"Full grown men are much nicer," Fujiyama muses. "Tall, with big, strong chests, and a regular wage packet..."

Yankumi is nodding along without noticing it, until she realises just what Fujiyama is saying and stops abruptly.

It occurs to her to wonder why, if nothing happened after all, Noda has been acting so smug around Class 3-D, all morning long.

-

The more Kumiko watches, the easier it is to notice. The way Noda's smile is stretched too tightly across his cheeks, and the way it twitches every so often. His smile won't reach up to meet his eyes, which look tired. The way he bends his head down deep over his work-book, and scratches away at the page with his pen almost as though he is stabbing at it.

Sometimes, she looks ove at Sawada instead. Sawada is always watching Noda, too. Kumiko knows he has probably already finished the assigned work, and because she still feels guilty that the boys aren't speaking she says nothing, just lets Sawada watch.

-

Noda can feel it; eyes on him. This morning it was everyone, when he walked in they all turned his way and focused in on him, they all wanted to know all the gossip and all the little details. Someone once told him that a real man has no need to brag, and so he figured his best defence was to pretend it was so good he didn't even feel the need to talk about it.

It had worked, and most of them had given up trying to ask questions after the first five minutes. Even the others, most just kept sending scribbled notes his way with dirty questions all over them. He screws them up, and then smirks again, trying not to scream.

But now he can feel Yankumi's eyes on him; concerned. She had been against this whole thing from day one, and wasn't at all quiet about it, but at least she was honest. Shin, now he was a different matter; helping Noda study only to want to go along and make sure his date was a failure.

Shin _knows_, Noda can tell. Shin always knows everything, and the dismal failure of his non-date is wearing a hole in the back of his head using Shin's eyes. Shin is watching him, waiting for him to snap and reveal all so that everyone can laugh at him. What Noda can't figure out, is why Shin would want to do that to him, and he isn't about to ask.

So after class, when Shin tries to come up from behind and talk to him, Noda whirls round and punches Shin right in the nose.

-

Yankumi watches Sawada drop to the floor with a hand over his face, and pokes Noda in the shoulder. When he turns to face her, it's her turn to throw a fist at him.

"Violence isn't the answer here!" She yells at Noda, who stumbles back.

"Then what did you do that for?!" He demands.

"That was for punching your very dear friend!" Yankumi says. "When are you guys going to realise the true importance of friendship? You don't pick a girl over your friends! If I have to keep beating it into you, I guess I will just keep going until my knuckles are bruised and bleeding!"

Noda looks speechless for a moment, but he recovers; they are all used to a healthy dose of Yankumi's tough love on a regular basis.

"I didn't choose a girl over my friends! Nothing happened!" Noda yells. Then he drops his voice. "Nothing was ever going to happen; she was just humouring me. I think she meant to be nice and wanted to let me down somewhere the rest of the class wouldn't overhear."

"Oh," Yankumi says.

"In fact," Noda continues, "I think in the end, we enjoyed teasing you about it, Yankumi. I mean, we knew you weren't happy about it, because you wouldn't shut up about it, but I don't think things would have gone so far if you hadn't been trying so hard to sabotage it."

"Oh," Yankumi says again. She covers her fist with her other hand, as if to cover up the punch.

"And I didn't really think it was Shin's fault. I guess... I was scared he was going to tell the guys what had happened. They all think I'm a King or something now. I only wanted to date Shizuka-chan so that they would all think that about me. And it's all a lie. I was just embarrassed because you know it's a lie."

"I know," Shin says, trying to gloss over the fact that he knows everything as quickly as possible. "I just wanted to say I was sorry. You tried for what you wanted, and it didn't work out. But I admire you for having the guts to try."

"...It helps having friends who support you," Noda admits. The corners of his mouth quirk up slightly in Shin's direction. He gives Yankumi a strange look as he leaves the classroom, one she can't identify.

-

"So?" Shin says. Yankumi looks at him.

"What?"

"Well, I just got punched in the face because of you. Isn't it about time to admit you could've been wrong about this?"

"You heard him!" Yankumi splutters. "It wasn't love! I was right to intervene!"

"Don't you think though, if you hadn't gotten involved, things would have just played out harmlessly, and no-one would have ever have had to think about it again?!"

Yankumi lifts her chin and looks down her nose.

"There's no way of knowing that," she says.

"No, there isn't," Shin agrees. "But it was just a prank. I thought Noda meant well, but I still can't blame him for what he did." He bites his tongue before he can say what he is thinking, because it hurts him even to think it, about his friend, or possibly even himself. Maybe in certain ways they are still kids.

-

There are expectant eyes looking at her when she walks through the door.

"Nothing happened," Kumiko says, along with a relieved sigh.

"Nothing happened," Ryuichiro repeats.

"Nothing happened!" She crows in delight. Kumiko settles herself down next to Ryuichiro, and he wonders whether he can shake her self-assurance from her.

"And I suppose this is all thanks to you?" He asks. Kumiko twitches.

"Well, no..." She says. "Fujiyama-sensei admitted she would never have taken it so far, really-"

"But at the least, I'm sure you didn't complicate things further."

"Well..." Kumiko clasps her hands in her lap and twiddles her fingers. "I may have caused a fight between Noda and Sawada. Not really a fight, an argument. And then a punch. But just one punch! And Sawada didn't fight back, I was so proud..."

"Shin got into a fight?"

"Just one punch..." Kumiko repeats, rather half-heartedly. "I didn't even ask him if he was alright..."

"I'm sure a teenage boy can survive one punch," Ryuichiro says. "His pride might be another matter."

"His pride?"

"Shin only wanted to help his friend, so you told me." Ryuichiro says. "You made him feel bad about it. When you dragged him into helping you, he did that too. At the cost of his friend blaming him. If you can't admit your interference was not necessary, perhaps you can at least admit to Shin that you didn't treat him fairly during this?"

There is a long moment of silence, and Ryuichiro wonders if Kumiko is holding in an outburst. But after a moment she breathes out and gives a small nod.

Ryuichiro can't help but suspect she was holding back a tear.

-

"It wasn't love," Kumiko says, a little drunkenly. "It was a terrible, terrible mess. Idea. Thing. It shouldn't have happened, and I'm glad it's over!"

"What if it had been love?" Tetsu asks curiously.

"Yeah," Minoru nods along. "Ojou, surely you wouldn't stand in the way of love?"

"But, it wasn't..." Kumiko frowns. The alcohol is fuzzing her mind. "I..."

"Even if it is between a teacher and a student, if it is love, it shouldn't matter, right?" Tetsu says. "Even if it is between a man, and a woman he would work for..."

"Huh?"

"Aniki!" Minoru hisses. "Ojou, some more to drink?"

"Ah yes, thank you," Kumiko smiles. Everything makes sense again.

"Men," Ryuichiro says, peering round the corner. "I think it is time to patrol."

"Yes sir!" Testu and Minoru say in unison, jumping to their feet. Ryuichiro is settling down and receiving the cup from Kumiko before they are all the way out of the door. He sits and sips a while in companionable silence.

"It's true," Kumiko says after a while. "They're right, you know. I believe that true love counts most of all. If two people are truly in love then there should be no boundaries!"

"Even as teacher and student?" Ryuichiro asks. He raises an eyebrow and glances to Sawada in the doorway. Kumiko still hasn't noticed him there, come to apologize for, all of things, behaving like a kid.

"If they have _been_ teacher and student," Kumiko says, "or if it is an adult taking lessons... No-one should take advantage of a young student. That is why there are laws to protect students! It would be so terrible for a teacher to break that trust. They would get into so much trouble. No student should have to feel responsible for that kind of thing."

"You're always thinking of your students," Ryuichiro smiles. "You've always been a wonderful teacher, Kumiko."

"I don't want to get you into trouble," Sawada says quietly to himself as he turns away. He slips right past Tetsu and Minoru as they keep watch. "But postponing this doesn't mean I'm completely giving up."

-


End file.
